A typical MBA candidate has several years of full-time, post-undergraduate work experience. The strongest candidates are dedicated, disciplined and focused on their intended career paths; they know what is required of them to achieve success and are clear about the particular area of interest they plan to pursue after obtaining an MBA degree. A good MBA student demonstrates evidence of leadership potential and consistent academic achievement. Other abilities include creativity, dedication, commitment and professionalism.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you possess entrepreneurship and leadership capabilities?
• Are you competent at language and communication skills?
• Do you possess a non-judgmental attitude, humanistic values, decision-making and analytical skills, interpersonal skills, and collaborative focus?
• Do you have a strong personal sense of direction, self-discipline and ethics?
• Are you able to define who you are in terms of what is important to you?
• Are you able to describe what kind of lifestyle you desire and what level of financial security you aspire to?
• Can you define what job satisfaction means to you?

It is also important to identify how your aspirations - within your capabilities - will match up with your priorities, which includes the question whether you are ready to be a student again for two or more years. Many first year students - having been out of school for many years - find it hard to adjust to the routine of being a student again i.e. attending lectures, doing schoolwork and turning in homework. Also, while few people are satisfied with just a career, how else will your education contribute to you leading a fulfilling life?
The most important work accomplished by organizations today is through the combined efforts of groups of people sharing their ideas and expertise. However, to function effectively on such teams, MBA students need to develop their interpersonal skills to bring out the best in each team member, to foster creativity and co-operation, and to channel conflict constructively. Effective team members do better at analytical and critical decision-making; they also discover how their input affects the behaviour of fellow team members, direct access to diverse information is improved, and they can more easily keep track of progress updates and tasks.

This is what all applicants to an MBA program need to ask themselves when they apply to any school to be admitted into their MBA program. Remember that the admissions officers and those professionals, who process your application, are also asking themselves if you will make a good candidate for their MBA program.

As the MBA is a very intense program, not to mention very expensive, schools are looking out for those applicants who come across as having prior knowledge about the program and are also clear about what they want from the program. As an MBA aspirant, you too, should do your best to be perceived as the ideal candidate for an MBA. The following areas are where you need to make your mark and put your best foot forward.

The Application for MBA

Once you have decided on some schools for an MBA program, the next step is to apply to those schools. Your application is the most important aspect, which will determine whether or not you are accepted into an MBA program. People think of the interview as the tough part, but if your application does not make you stand out as a great candidate, then you may never reach as far as the interview. Here’s how you can better your MBA application:

Have a really solid and complete application file. List down all your qualifications and your work experience in a way that complements them. Do NOT leave any part of the application form blank.

The essay that is required with the application should be written sincerely and should be so compelling that the person reviewing your application finds it tough to put your essay down.

Prepare for your GMAT test beforehand so as to have a high GMAT score in your application form.

The letters of recommendation with your application should stand out from the others.

Remember that only as little as 20% of all applications received by MBA schools, are actually considered further for the next stage in the admissions process. So make sure that you do the best possible job with your application so that it goes on top of the ‘in’ pile and does not get relegated to the ‘out’ pile.

Interviews for MBA Programs

If your MBA application is as good as it should be, then you may be short listed for the interviews. This is another critical aspect of the MBA admissions process and here the interviewer can physically determine how good a candidate you are for their MBA degree. Here are some tips to help you get prepared for the interview:

Portray Yourself as Part of a Team: Convey what you wish to get out of the MBA course, but more importantly, tell what you will contribute to it as well. Most MBA graduates consider their classmates and other students to be a big help during the course. So present yourself as a quality student and a valuable team member.

Be Sincere and Truthful: Do not give answers to questions that you think the interview committee wants to hear. They are great at their job and can easily differentiate among students who are being sincere and those who just give the ‘expected’ answers. So be honest about your expectations from the MBA course and why you have decided to pursue the particular program or school.

Prepare Yourself: Make a list of expected questions and then decide how you will answer them. But do not prepare actual questions and answers as then they will seem rehearsed and not spontaneous.

The MBA - is it worth it? More importantly, is it worth the investment made by companies in sponsoring developing leaders on the programme? It can be argued that underdeveloped managers are a greater cost to a company than the once-off investment of a qualification such as the MBA.

However, such a statement needs some substance - therefore one has to look at "What value can an MBA graduate add to your company ? "

The fact is, we are operating in an ever-changing, fast-paced, highly competitive and global world of work, but how does one respond to this environment. According to Dr Charlene Lew, former dean of the Damelin International College of Postgraduate Business Sciences, the first step would be to gain an understanding of this distraught business world. “It all starts with an understanding of the economy and how businesses can contribute to the invention of products that will increase the country’s resources. With that is an understanding of economic concepts, such as ‘inflation’ and ‘consumer price index’. A simple insight into managerial economics, such as supply and demand and opportunity costs assists MBA graduates understand the role of profit maximisation endeavours in the firm and how economics inform organisational decision-making,” said Dr Lew.

“In aligning the company with the government’s economic policies, the manager with an MBA can then oversee the financial management of the firm. And, by understanding the company accounts, the manager can assess the performance of the business. With the well-acclaimed holistic viewpoint of MBA graduates, productivity is seen in terms of the input that all the role-players in the firm must play. Of course the MBA also equips the manager, as a strategist, with analytical tools to assess profitability, through, for example, indicators of return on investment (ROI) or residual income (RI), to mention but two illustrations.”

Up to this point it is clear that the manager with an MBA understands the economic pressures on the company and has a firm grip on the financial condition of the firm. The MBA manager also understands to what extent the current financial situation is aligned with the strategy for profitability. The next logical step is for the MBA manager to know how to discover, predict and fulfil customers’ needs, so the company can show true profits. It is all about knowing how to compete. And it is about that winning relationship with customers and other stakeholders and, through marketing research skills, finding out what the customer wants - a true value-add to the company.

In the quest for productivity, top managers need to consistently determine whether the company is capable of surpassing problems in the process of successfully delivering products or services to the customer, and is the customer prepared to pay for these. If not, management needs to know when to introduce drastic actions. Productivity is clearly dependent on the decision-making ability of the leaders of the firm. Leaders with a purely financial or marketing background are not sufficiently knowledgeable regarding the decisions required for a productivity and competitive analysis.

Now, with the company riding the waves of the economy, forecasting its financial needs, controlling its funds and adding to its bottom line by getting the right product at the right price to the right place for the right person, while promoting all this in the most effective manner, the MBA manager can also do a bit of healthy introspection. “It is now when the MBA manager can have an intelligible look at how the company has been put together, how effectively communication flows among the various elements and how valuable the learning is that is taking place. Here the top manager with the MBA is equipped to forecast trends and developments in the organisational design and use techniques to improve the performance of the organisation as a whole. Based on that, intelligent actions can then be taken in terms of the people in the company and how their performance and development are managed,” said Dr Lew.

“With the organisation designed to run like clockwork, and where the delicate balance has been reached between giving to employees and gaining from their skills and endeavours, the MBA manager can evaluate the degree to which operation management is contributing to the competitiveness and profitability of the company. It is accepted that the MBA qualification will have given the individual the ability to have a strategic outlook on how operations can adhere to world-class standards and how they can operate in synergy with the other business functions.”

Dr Lew said that of course, the manager must then also be able to turn technological advancement to the benefit of the company, rather than seeing it as a threat. An understanding of information systems and knowledge technology then underpins the success of the MBA manager in this regard. This produces information that is useful to the company.

Clearly each element of value that the MBA adds builds on the others, but these values reach a different level when the skills of international business strategy are included. Consider just a few of the skills that the MBA manager has in this regard: He/she can manage the strategic options for the company, implement an effective team process, formulate strategies for the various business functions, gauge product-market demand and competitive interdependencies, including the scope of proposed businesses strategies, show flexibility and creativity in response to changing markets, identify and balance any competing forces for localisation or globalisation for the business and its functions such as marketing and production. These are only few of the very convincing arguments of the value that the MBA holds for the employer.

“Yet, there is more,” said Dr Lew. “The MBA manager can also tackle complex research endeavours to bring specific solutions to the company. The power of this lies in that the MBA manager does not only have extensive management knowledge, but also unusual insight into the firm he/she is operating in. With that combined knowledge, and with access to appropriate secondary data and newly gained primary data, the research yields recommendations and plans that could not be generated in any other way.”

“Overall, there is one key as to how the MBA programme facilitates improved company performance and increases managerial effectiveness and efficiency. The key lies in the new way of thinking that the MBA programme provides to its students. It is accomplished by developing a holistic understanding of business, leading to the detection of business problems and the recognition of opportunities. Through such insights, students can then creatively define and analyse alternatives before deciding on an appropriate course of action. This is the essence of the strategic MBA outlook,” said Dr Lew.

Convincing. The MBA manager can truly add value to any firm. And the value is added where it really matters – in improved performance of the manager and in increased profitability of the company. “But, a principle condition to this increased value-add needs to be clearly stated - the value added is proportional to the degree to which the MBA knowledge is applied,” concluded Dr Lew.

The conclusion? The MBA qualification that manifests in applied skills is of immense worth to the employer.

The MBA qualification broadens and enhances knowledge and should be viewed in a sense of building up skills. Although the most popular reasons for undertaking the MBA is to increase salary, other reasons include widening career opportunities, furthering one’s career and/or to extend personal networks.

There are other equally important reasons that any prospective MBA student will state, but by far the most compelling is to create career opportunities for oneself. The challenges imposed by the 21st century have made it an essential component that we upgrade skills and qualifications in order to meet the demands set by companies, customers and the environment we operate within.

This is where the MBA becomes a tool to be utilised in building up existing competencies - the theory learned can be utilised to find plausible solutions to concurrent business issues. At the end of an MBA programme, one emerges with an upper level of functional managerial and business issues as well as new conceptual skills ready to meet the demands that are set by the competitiveness around us.

With an MBA you can:

• 
  
• Advance your career

  Whether you're a doctor, an engineer, or an editor for your local newspaper, a graduate business degree can prepare you to move into a managerial position within your field.

• Change your career

  If your current career path is a less than perfect fit for your aptitudes and interests, business school can give you the opportunity to explore your options, then provide you with the training you need to change careers entirely.

• Set up your own business

  Interested in starting your own business, but not sure that you have the necessary expertise to launch a start-up in a high-growth industry? An MBA can prepare you to do everything from writing a business plan to acquiring venture capital to launching an IPO. Research has shown that the failure rate for small businesses started by an MBA is about 50 percent less than the standard failure rate.

• Develop technical skill and business knowledge

  Can you advance to a managerial position or launch your own business without the benefit of a graduate degree in business? Yes. There is much to be learned from on-the-job training and employers certainly value work experience. However, an MBA programme will put you on the fast-track to career advancement by offering you the chance to develop a wide range of general business knowledge and a broad base of technical skill in a relatively short period of time.

• Become a leader in an emerging field

  Innovative education can lead to an exciting career in a newly emerging field, such as brand management, information technology, e-commerce, or mobile telecommunications.

• Network

  Networking is another key benefit. Business school teaching styles encourage teamwork and, over the course of an MBA programme, you'll develop important relationships that can serve you well throughout your business career. And no matter the school, you can often get plugged into a network of alumni working at a wide range of companies. This is useful for professional contacts.

Although the degree is considered the pathway to a successful career, it still does not guarantee a flood of job offers, but when one considers the positive options, it far outweighs the negative issues. It is a costly course and the time constraints that are associated with the study load are legendary. That’s why, in some circles, it has been termed “Married, but away”.

Approach the studies with an open mindset and let your intentions be to develop yourself to your full capacity. Accept the programme as a challenge, set your personal as well as career objectives and, most importantly, utilise the Masters of Business Administration degree to close gaps that may exist within your skills and qualifications, so that you can facilitate and expedite your management career

The MBA (Master of Business Administration) is an internationally recognised and geographically portable post-graduate, post-experience academic course in a number of subjects that together can be said to constitute the science of management.

It is intended for those who work in business and management who seek career advancement, business ownership, or technical skills and business knowledge.

The challenges imposed by the 21st Century place a high premium on upgrading skills and qualifications in order to meet the demands set by companies, customers and the environment that managers operate in.

Management areas
Functional areas of management comprise Human Resource Management, Operations Management, Marketing Management, Information Management, Financial Management, Strategic Management and Organisational Behaviour. At the end of an MBA programme, the graduate emerges with an upper level knowledge of functional managerial and business issues as well as new conceptual skills ready to meet the demands that are set by the competitive business environment.

However, in addition to developing strong technical skills, today’s managers must be able to influence people, interact with a broad spectrum of colleagues, customers and suppliers; and negotiate with individuals from all walks of life. They must know how their company relates to competitors in both the micro and macro business environments.

Prior experience essential
The MBA programme, which was first launched in the US in the 1950’s as a two-year post-graduate course and exported to Europe in the 1960’s, was initially rejected as irrelevant to the world of business and the schools were viewed as second rate.

Albeit, the MBA qualification grew largely within the framework of their non-vocational universities; the first year was devoted to the core disciplines of the science of management and the second year offered more specialisation through a choice of electives. Specialist MBAs were introduced with modular topics such as international business, finance, the public sector and even football. While the US model enrolled students after taking a first degree, business schools in Europe placed much greater emphasis on practical work experience prior to entering the MBA programme. By comparison, the learning curve of entrants with prior business knowledge and work experience played a significant role in re-writing the criteria for universal MBA enrolment.

Over a period of almost 30 years, from the beginning of the 1960’s to the end of the 1980’s, the MBA was transformed from being the Cinderella of professional qualifications to a coveted tool to be utilised in building existing competencies to find plausible solutions to concurrent business issues. By the late 1970’s, the battle for respectability had been won and the number of universities sprouting business school and MBA courses increased dramatically. Today, increased globalisation and changing lifestyles has meant that thousands of universities worldwide present the MBA qualification, offering more flexible ways of learning, including: distance learning, modular, in-company, and part-time study.

New developments
Driven by competitive factors, new developments over the past 20 years have successfully changed the primary two-year MBA programme to offer entrants shorter programmes (the one-year programme being the norm in some countries); running different programme structures such as modular, consortium, international and joint, as well as programmes accommodating diverse groups of people from different business sectors or different age groups; and internationalisation of curriculum content.

While most established programmes around the world have adopted the MBA title, there are programmes that are similar to what other schools would call an MBA, which also lead to degrees with other titles. Such titles include MBL (Master of Business Leadership), which is a post-graduate degree in the management sciences, and MBS (Master of Business Studies).

Choose your course carefully
While entrants may benefit from the wide choice of programmes, making the right choice of programme is paramount. In choosing a school and an MBA programme, the entrant should bear two main considerations in mind: what he or she wants to gain from the programme in terms of the skills or competence they wish to develop, and what is appropriate for their personal constraints such as budget, time availability, location, etc. Competition is strong for enrolment at the best business schools and employers also place a high premium on the criterion to attract the best graduates.

The MBA programme of the 21st Century is in a state of perpetual change – continually adding value through creativity, knowledge, innovation and learning for the benefit of our future business leaders. It has become one of the most sought after qualifications in today’s corporate world as a prerequisite to most top management positions. Possibly even more important is the fact that an MBA is a dynamic qualification that is qualitatively linked to the continuous change and growth associated with the management of global economic models.

Worldwide, the best business leaders consider an MBA qualification key to the continual success of careers in sectors like manufacturing, business, education, healthcare and other service sectors. A good business programme offers skills not ordinarily mastered in a conventional work environment such as Finance, Statistics, and Managerial Economics. While electives may opt to specialise within specific business components such as International Management, Human Resources, and Finance, the MBA is clearly a process of lifelong learning. Besides equipping managers with executive skills, it is a medium that encourages self-motivated continual learning not just as a means to career progression, but also to make a viable contribution to stimulate growth and development of the global economy.

Yet, at the dawn of the 21st Century, the classic profile of the MBA student is changing. Just a decade ago, MBAs were arming themselves with a qualification that would pave the way to a top managerial position with a multinational corporation. Today, the MBA is also relevant to those opting for a position with a smaller, but progressive company as well as business tycoons wanting to run their own company or join new-economy start-ups. This means that the traditional MBA is entering its most progressive stage of development.

The entrance exam for the IIMs and a clutch of other institutes, to others like the XAT and JMET that follow. It’s make or break time for the creamy layer that has set its eyes on only the best business schools that India has to offer. But why stop at India when you can simultaneously consider options across the world?

India is estimated to have in excess of 1,600 management schools spread out across the country. Of these only a few dozen offer a quality brand with all its incumbent attributes: good curriculum and faculty inputs, infrastructure, international exposure, industry interaction and finally, excellent placements. In the final tally, there’s only space enough at the top for a few thousand students from the lakhs of annual MBA aspirants.

Yet, the changing dynamics of the MBA aspirant pool is opening up new options that students would do well to consider. The experience of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad — the first B-school in the country to demand prior work experience from incoming students for its one-year, full-time MBA course — is a pointer in this direction. “More and more people with experience feel that there is a real opportunity to get a good education with real opportunities for career shifts. points out that the number of students with quality work experience of as much as eight to 10 years (including international exposure) is increasing every year.

Postal Address
Admissions Office,
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad,
Vastrapur, Ahmedabad-380015
admission@iimahd.ernet.in

Admissions Office,
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore,
Bannerghatta Road. Bangalore-660076
pgpadm@iimb.ernet.in

Admissions Office,
Indian Institute of Management Calcutta,
D.H. Road. Joka, Kolkata-700104
pgpadmissions@iimcal.ac.in

Admissions Office,
Indian Institute of Management Indore,
Pigdamber, Rau, lndore-453331
pgpadmission@iimidr.ac.in

Admissions Office,
Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode,
IIM Kozhikode Campus P.O.,
Kozhikode-673570
admissions@iimk.ac.in

Admission Office,
Indian Institute of Management Lucknow,
Prabandh Nagar, Off Sitapur Road,
Lucknow-226013:
admission@iiml.ac.in

Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management,
Mayurbhanj Complex,
Nongthymai, Shillong–793014
director@iimshillong.in
contact@iimshillong.in

Interactive Voice Response System Numbers
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad: 079-26307258
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore: 080-26484650
Indian Institute of Management Calcutta: 033-24380266
Indian Institute of Management Indore: 0731-4058371
Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode: 0495-2803005
Indian Institute of Management Lucknow: 0522-2736666
Indian Institute of Management Shillong: 0364–2308004

Websites
CAT Website: www.catiim.in
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad: www.iimahd.ernet.in
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore: www.iimb.ernet.in
Indian Institute of Management Calcutta: www.iimcal.ac.in
Indian Institute of Management Indore: www.iimidr.ac.in
Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode: www.iimk.ac.in
Indian Institute of Management Lucknow: www.iiml.ac.in
Indian Institute of Management Shillong: www.iimshillong.in

One of the main rules of the job search is that you must be able to market yourself. Employers need to see what puts you a cut above the rest of the job-seekers who are vying for the same position. They want to know what makes you viable and unique. If you want to know what makes you invaluable to an employer, you may consider getting a distance learning MBA.

It is always good to know a little bit about everything. However, it can be much more advantageous to know a great deal about one thing – your discipline. A distance learning MBA helps you to become an expert in your line of work. It makes you more valuable to businesses.

You can stay ahead in the corporate world by earning a distance learning MBA through learning new business procedures and methods.

The knowledge you acquire through an online master’s program can be applied to decisions that need to be made on your job and in everyday life. You will become equipped with tools that lead to better corporate strategies, decision-making, and policies. When you use these tools on the job, you will impact your entire work environment with your knowledge.

The advancement opportunities are tremendous for those with advanced degrees like a distance learning MBA. Investing in your career could lead to raises and promotions. With your expertise, you will be eligible to climb higher up the corporate ladder. Most managers, top executives, and CEO’s have reached those positions because they have attained sophisticated degrees in their line of work. They steadily rose from an entry-level employee. Each subsequent step led to higher and higher ranks within the company until they finally reached the height of their careers.

Yet, moving up the corporate ladder is not your only option when moving ahead in the workforce. Many people become entrepreneurs and start their own businesses. The knowledge that you gain from pursuing a master’s degree is focused and in-depth. Many people take this knowledge and start their own careers from the ground up. This gives them the freedom to do something they love and work for themselves at their own pace.

An enormous benefit of earning a distance learning MBA is that you can tailor the curriculum to fit your specific needs. You can choose which courses you want to take so that you can enhance your educational experience. You select courses that apply specifically to your current occupation or a profession that you would like in the future. The program allows you a flexibility that you otherwise might not obtain from a traditional college curriculum.

The courses are taught by professors who have similar experience in your field. Many of these instructors have already published books that have received exceptional reviews. These books are based on their own success stories in the corporate world. The techniques and strategies they teach have been proven to work and have lead to new business theories and organizational change.

Impress your prospective employers with a distance learning MBA. It will put you on the cutting edge of the business market and a step ahead of the competition.

Upon completion, an MBA leads to responsible positions in business, taking critical managerial decisions that lead to the growth of any top-notch organization. MBA programs are run throughout the world, because their relevance is across industries, business sectors and economies. And what’s more, this exciting profile comes with an even more exciting pay packet.

Advantage MBA: What's in Store for You?

Open newer avenues: An MBA provides the modern manager with tools and skills needed to identify new opportunities for organizational success. MBA programs are designed to make one aware of different approaches that have traditionally helped in managing organizations.

Understand business dynamics better: An MBA provides a person with the ability to understand the nuances of business and the dynamics involved in managing it. An MBA is useful for anyone who wants to refocus his or her career.

Get Picked by the Best: Why Do Companies Prefer MBAs?

The foremost traits that corporate recruiters look for and find in MBA candidates are:

Sound communication and interpersonal skills

Ability to analyze and strategize

Leadership skills

Call it the effect of globalization or to combat competition, companies today are taking all measures to ensure professional conduct in all aspects of their functioning. These changes in the business environment have a natural and direct correlation with the kind of people that are hired to run companies, irrespective of the fact that they are naïve graduates or experienced racehorses.

MBAs Remain the Top Choice

It is perceived that certain professional characteristics are innately present in most MBA recruits:

Emphasis on professionalism

Stress on deliverables and deadlines

Better understanding of a company’s integrated functionality

Internationally mobile and sensitive to cultural diversity

Identify the MBA in You: The Three Step Process

Self-assessment
Self-assessment should be the first step in any major career or life altering decision.
Take time to reflect on your experiences, your abilities and your ambitions. Understand your career path; the planning and the timeline required to achieve it. Assuming that the MBA will help you achieve your goals, what is it that you want to learn and gain through an MBA program? If you self-assess well, you'll be in a better position to understand your strengths and opportunities.

Define your career path
To understand where you see yourself a few years from now, the most important step is to define your career path; what are the choices you plan to make to take charge and further your goals?

The Other Side of the Coin: The MBA Life

As in all careers, there is a flip side to being an MBA. Though not a huge deterrent, one should know about the life of an MBA as well.

A bit of a reality check here, but the personal life of most MBAs especially during their training period and formative years in an organization is extremely hectic. One of the primary reasons being: high performance pressure. Most MBAs are at the helm of affairs for business concerns involving decision and policy making that demands a lot physically and mentally. The ones spearheading departments are responsible for what the whole team does, and every decision you take affects not just you, but often your entire team and impacts the entire organization.

But then, what's life without challenges? If you feel that you are made for tackling life head-on, and are excited about your work being meaningful, what are you waiting for? An MBA is a great first step towards your dream destination.

The scope for a MBA graduate is unparalleled. Apart from attractive pay packets and placements being offered at college-level itself, it opens doors to various sectoral opportunities. The Indian Corporate world has seen many MBA professionals occupying top slots in the corporate ladder.

Apart from Corporate careers, one can opt for entrepreneurship, work in co-operatives, NGO's as the opportunities are literally unlimited.

Even when the industry goes through trends/fads, like the recent dot com fad, MBAs are the first in and among the first out, thereby reaping the benefits of a rising industry and the smartness of exiting to a different industry when the fall happened. This is due to the multi-dimensional, multi-tasking quality an MBA possesses. For example: A MBA with Finance specialization does not necessarily fare poorly when the industry hits the doldrums. He gets onto marketing of financial services (say, marketing of mutual funds or insurance products), thereby reducing career risk.

Today, a Management Degree has become an attractive proposition, as there are attractive entry level salaries (including $ salaries offered by some MNC's) and typically, a Management Graduate gets absorbed into a Company through the Campus Placement Program of the Institute. The MBA Program offers a lucrative career option to both experienced professionals as well as fresh graduates.

For those in the business world, networking is key to getting ahead. With an online degree program, students are given the opportunity to network across a broad range of people, because they are studying with students from all around the globe. MBA degrees obtained online means you are not limited to networking with people within your county. This provides you incredible opportunities to connect with people in positions all across the country and acquire invaluable contacts within the business world.

Additionally, MBA degrees allow students to learn from a variety of top level professionals across the country. Because online colleges recruit professors, teachers and top executives from all around the world, students are able to interact with a variety of people completely through an online degree program. Anyone who desires to share their real world experience and are learned and experienced in their field can be a candidate for a teaching position at one of the top distance learning institutions. As a result, a student can have a professor from Stanford University for one class and another from Harvard the next.

The MBA degree opens up worlds of opportunity for its bearers. Many business positions require an MBA for advancement. For example, investment banking and management consulting firms hire large classes of newly minted MBAs each year at six-figure salaries into the "associate" level -- those without MBAs generally don't advance past the "analyst" level. At major consumer products companies like Procter & Gamble, Kraft and Colgate-Palmolive, MBAs are hired as "assistant brand managers" into the brand management department --

those without MBAs are generally not eligible for the department. And it is from this function that these companies' senior executives are generally drawn.

There are two kinds of MBA institutes in India -- a handful from which you leave with a pedigree and the vast majority which offer just degrees. In the first category lie the IIMs, XLRI and, to a lesser extent, FMS and Bajaj -- the institutions which pioneered the concept of management education at a time when the IAS was a far more wanted career path.

In the second lies a vast array of institutes -- the good, the mediocre and the dubious. Evaluating the value proposition in the latter category is the daunting task faced by the majority of MBA aspirants.

Although numerous B school rankings may be published every year, it rarely if ever alters the recruiter's pecking order. For 'class' or the jobs requiring brainwork, it's a select few institutes. For 'mass' or the groundwork jobs, it's down the B school ladder. And how low down this ladder a company will go depends on how many fresher it requires.

With so many new sectors opening up -- retail, insurance, BPO, telecom -- it would seem the job pie has grown exponentially. True, except that B school you graduate from often still determines whether you eat your slice at the chairman's table. Many companies follow differential recruitment policies. Better salary, designation and job profiles are offered to the more premium grads.

But, in an ironic twist, one man's Cat can be another's Dog. Several reputed companies -- especially Indian ones -- prefer to recruit from less elite campuses. These MBAs, they believe, work harder to prove themselves and are far more loyal to the organisation.

It's a different thing that, given half the chance, the same MBAs would jump to join the very MNCs that won't touch them!